Part of being an advocate for preparedness means we support organizations that help people in times of crisis. And for me, that means supporting the Central Texas Food Bank.

Kendel and I are once again part of the host team that rents out award winning Franklin BBQ to put on the Skip The Line For Hunger event to support the Food Bank. Rather than stand in line for hours to eat some of the best BBQ on the planet, you can be a part of a limited seating audience and consume all of the BBQ and beer you want.

This event runs from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM on Tuesday, February 20. We'll also have a live auction - with yours truly serving as auctioneer - with a number great items for you to bid on. KR Training has graciously agreed once again to donate certificates good for training at their firearms classes as part of this event.

Often in the first responder/emergency response community, we hear of reports and analyses of lessons learned and weaknesses identified after a training exercise or actual emergency. These are often referred to as an after action review or AAR.

I find AARs quite helpful, not only for formal training and actual events, but even for smaller happenings in our lives. Memorializing the lessons we learn from various things that happen in our lives - the car battery dies at an inconvenient time, getting stuck in an airport overnight, your kid leaves the water running in the bathtub for too long - help us identify ways to prevent such things from happening again.

As the winter weather approached Texas from the Rockies and Northern Plains a few days ago, I began my planning in earnest, knowing that I'd be doing an AAR on my efforts once the storm passed. I thought I'd share this AAR with you with the hopes that a) you'll get something out of what I did and learned and b) you'll consider doing AARs in your various efforts at home and work as well.

First things first: since we live in a new house (built by us and occupied since May 2017), we had no checklist of what to do in the event of a pending ice storm. I began formulating a check list to memorialize the various things I did in anticipation of being iced in for a couple of days. (I'm posting a draft of that checklist below, with the caveat that a) it's a draft and b) I will likely be amending it in the days to come).

I'm a big believer in checklists. My sister in law gave me The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande for Christmas. A prepper friend recommended the book this fall, and so I am looking forward to reading it this weekend. Checklists are great, especially when you are trying to get your house ready for a severe weather event in short order. I made a similar checklist as Hurricane Harvey approached the Texas coast.

Things I did not have on hand (and had to purchase):

Propane tank for plumber's torch. This was necessary for reasons described below.

Driveway salt. I am not a fan of this stuff, as it has some environmental risks. However, we have a steep driveway which can be problematic to navigate when icy.

I didn't really need groceries, but I consider my time at grocery stores pre-storm as field research. What are people buying? What is in shortage? What are they saying as they shop? What are store managers saying about additional shipments of supplies? We were fine with what we had, but I topped off anyway.

Things we did well:

The checklist came together really well, I think in large part because much of it was duplicitous to my Hurricane Harvey prep.

Similarly, getting these preps done took less time this week than they did prior to Harvey. Knowing what to do and how to it really paid off.

More use of the label maker. I'll admit - I love making labels. I have started labeling key switches and valves, along with creating instructional placards on the various pieces of infrastructure in our home. I do this in large part so that my wife or kid can pick up the checklist in my absence and figure out what to do without having to FaceTime me for guidance. I was able to create more labels as I completed my preparations to help with this.

The lock on the pump house froze up. I picked up the propane tank for the plumber's torch yesterday to thaw it out, so that I could check on the interior of the pump house.

The supply lines feeding the tankless water heaters froze up last night due to extreme cold. Fortunately, the plumber's torch came in handy again to help thaw out those lines to restore hot water to the house. New items to the checklist have been added for this as well.

At this point, many people would say, "Paul....enough with the lists and the analysis of what you did and didn't do." And that's fine - we all learn in different ways. For me, being able to streamline the process and do things thoroughly are priorities. This is the best way I have found to do that.

This weekend, Karl Rehn of KR Training and I held our annual prepper training weekend event, normally scheduled for the first full weekend after January 1.

This year's event deviated dramatically from the past five years. First, we moved from our usual venue - the Cabela's outdoor store in Buda, Texas - to Karl's facility near Lincoln. This enabled us to have training in the classroom as well as the range. We also expanded the event to two days, which enabled us to cover much more material than we normally would have.

The new format seemed to really go over well with attendees. Most of them had never attended the Cabela's events before (of 14 attendees, only three had previously joined us at Cabela's.)

Here are some notes on some selected parts of the presentations I did:

Ham Radio Basics. My goal was to demystify ham radio and explain why amateur radio was the preferred communication platform for preppers. I find that many in the ham radio community don't really know now to approach those of us who are more interested in the utility of amateur radio but who have little interest in the technical aspects of it. From the feedback I received, I suspect many of the attendees will be looking to obtain their license in 2018.

Building a Survival Tin. This was a hands on project - after a very short presentation on the value of survival tins and how you can make ones that are TSA friendly for travel and school friendly for kids, I turned the students loose with some empty tins and supplies, such as small compasses, fishing hooks, pinch lights, aluminum foil, waterproof matches, water purification tablets and other items. I encouraged them to get creative in how they packed their tins and share with each other how they were organizing them.

This activity was a big hit - everyone enjoyed this activity. The main reason I wanted them to do this was to demonstrate what a great preparedness activity this can be for friends and family of all ages.

End of Life Preparedness. This is not a fun topic, but it is a necessary one. Do you have a will in place? Do you have your live "organized" so that when you pass, you make it easier on your survivors to resolve your estate? While we may face a risk of a crisis or disaster at some point in our lives, all of us face death one day. That's a disaster for which we should all prepare to as to mitigate the disastrous effects it could have on the lives of our loved ones. We also discussed the need to have good insurance and an In Case of Death - ICOD - folder. The ICOD folder supplements the will and also provides information on how your family should handle your affairs when you are ill.

Storable Food Taste Testing. I wanted students to sample some of those foods that come in a mylar back with a 30 year shelf life. We sampled a number of foods from different manufacturers to give attendees an idea of what to expect. People were pleasantly surprised that the food didn't taste terrible. Everyone found foods that they could eat in an emergency.

Creating A Home Defense Plan. Karl led the discussion on this. Making your home more challenging for intruders should be a priority for all of us. Using security cameras, quality door locks and security film on windows are some ways a homeowner can reduce their risk of a home invasion. In addition, having some idea of how we will rally together as a family during a break in is critical for life safety. Karl explained that parents of small children should consider placing their bedroom closer to their kids, rather than on an opposite end of a house, to increase their ability to protect their children in the event of an intrusion.

Becoming Your Own Fusion Center. Fusion centers - offices where information and data is collected and analyzed from both private and open sources for the benefit of law enforcement - are becoming more common. We discussed how to become your own fusion center by collecting information from various sources during times of emergency. Local media, social media, cashiers at local grocery stores, delivery people, first responder radio scanners - there are lots of sources of intel we can use for creating our own fusion center.

Practical Gold and Silver Investing. I say keep it simple: Buy American Eagles and Mercury Dimes. Treat it as an insurance policy and not as investment.

Developing a Home Medical Emergency Plan. This is of personal interest to me. Calling 911 and doing first aid or CPR during a medical emergency in your home is not a plan; I learned that the hard way. You need to be preparing for how you'll handle medical emergencies, including getting your house ready for the deluge of first responders that will be coming over to your house in minutes.

In addition, Karl taught two mornings on the range. We gave students the option of classroom training or range training during the morning session. Karl covered fundamentals on Saturday morning, progressing to shooting from cover and armed movement in structures. The Sunday morning range session had students conducting team tactics - something most shooting programs don't stress. In an emergency, you may not only be trying to stop the threat - you may have to coordinate the movements of friends and family who are with you.

Some overall thoughts:

Even for those who identified as basic level preppers, the acumen of every student in the program was remarkable. Today's basic level prepper is well ahead of the basic level prepper 20 years ago. As preparedness becomes more mainstream, people are better able to educate themselves and make better gear and training decisions than those of us who started in earnest in the mid 1990s.

Food storage and food planning remains a challenge to beginners. I can see why - it's by far the most complex subject I talk about. While there are lots of technical topics to cover - such as ham radio, end of life decisions, solar power - food storage remains an elusive topic for many to really grasp. I think that's because there are so many options now, and there's no best way to go about it. As a result, we spent a fair amount of time on the subject.

The "OpSec" or operational security concerns that many in the movement have expressed (i.e., "Don't tell anyone you're prepping so they won't rob you when things get bad") seems to be diminishing. People are quite open to talking about their plans and what they have stored. As more people get into preparedness, I suspect that trend will continue.

Karl and I are already working on some advanced preparedness training opportunities for this summer and beyond. I have some ideas on where we need to go next, and the participants offered some good suggestions as well.